Which is better for a DBA (Swarm); powered subs or unpowered?

1. I've never tested anyone who could not localize a 30Hz tone playing from one channel or another.

2. The reason low frequencies are summed is for stereo playback to keep the stylus in the groove.

3. Nope. If the bass is mono, it still bears a time relationship to the rest of the spectrum

4. Sound is sound and behaves the same across all frequencies. Waves don't collide. They pass right through one another. We may hear or measure a null, but that is a mechanical artifact. Move away from the null and the signal level returns to the same level.

5. If our brains summed and averaged, we would not be able to perceive low end at all.

6. never read that. Please supply a reference. Not by DBA advocate, s'il vous plait.

7. 200ms!?!?!? Surely you jest. That's almost a ¼ note @  120BPM.    Again, please supply a reference.

8. Again waves don't collide. They get absorbed.

There’s also no performance, imaging or quality concerns dependent on the direct bass sound waves from any specific, or combination of subs, arriving at the listener’ ears first.

If that were the case, one could place a sub anywhere in a room and hear no difference.

Subs are not brick wall devices. They output significant energy well into the mid-bass. If they are not coherent with the mains, they smear the impulse response.

Perhaps DBA work with time incoherent mains where everything is a huge bucket of mush and when crossed over below where there is any significant program, but with time coherent mains and crossed over much above 40Hz, they never can.

LOL - so many opinions, so little consistency!  It would be interesting to test out these hypotheses using 3 subs, at different distances from the listener, set up so 2 of the subs together have the same volume as the third one alone.  Run the same mono source to all three, and use an A/B switch to flip between the single and the pair.  Anybody want to bet on the outcome?  (hint; I don't think any 2 people on this site would agree)

PS: for the comparison above, no signals over 100 Hz need apply.

heaudio123

... you are either lieing about testing people for directionality at 30hz or your speaker had high distortion and there was frequencies well above 30hz ... You can't localize 30hz. It is impossible.

Actually, @ieales is correct - it is possible to localize a 30hZ tone, and it's been demonstrated. To be fair, it's more difficult to localize LF than higher frequencies, but as you note:

Your ears and brain do not process bass the same as higher frequencies. Timing is less important.

Quite so, and you may be more correct than you realize! What makes low frequencies  directional are differences in phase, and yes, this can be demonstrated, too.

Want proof? Go out and make some of your own recordings. Play them back on a high end system. Perhaps experiment with binaural recording. You might be amazed at what's possible.